Sorolla Sketches I Did At The San Diego Museum Of Art Exhibition

A few months back there was an exhibit of Joaquin Sorolla at the San Diego Museum of Art. I bought a membership to the museum just so that I could go there and sketch the paintings while the exhibit was going on. I ended up going once or twice a week to sketch. For many of the sketches, I was trying to emulate his brush work with pencil strokes. I am generally much tighter of an artist, so it was a good exercise to help depict forms with less detail and more simplicity. Hopefully the museum will continue to get artists of this caliber. Always fun to see masterful artworks in person and getting the chance to study them.

Some 5x7s - Godzilla Monsters and Lady

Here are some recent pieces I have done while working on larger paintings and drawings. I have been doing a bunch of Godzilla stuff. I saw the recent movie, which I liked, for the most part. I loved this stuff as a kid, and seen the movies who knows how many times. I wanted to do some smaller paintings for practice and fun. The dog sketch is my roommates dog, her name is Lady. She is a sweet dog and spends a lot of time in my room. She sheds a lot though, you could make a new small dog with the amount of hair that gets swept up.

Frank Underwood

I have been slowly getting back into painting. Here is a painting I did of Kevin Spacey as Frank Underwood from House of Cards. The show has been great, I just watched the last episode of season 2 a couple days ago. Frank is a very interesting character, and this painting sits next to my painting of Tywin Lannister on my mantle. I decided to do a painting of him as a warm up before I tackle more complicated paintings. I am happy with how the painting turned out for not painting in over 6 months, it is a little rough around the edges. This was done in Zorn palette, so just 4 colors were used to paint it.

15x20 Long Figure Drawing And 5x7 Dog Sketch

New figure drawing that I recently finished. I wanted to try a new surface so I did this on Hot Press Illustration board. Overall I am quite happy with the drawing. The head to come out a little big. I did what I could to fix it. This was a very tough drawing to do.

Horse Portrait

Horse portrait drawing I did as a demo for my animal portrait drawing class at Watts Atelier. First time drawing a horse. It was a challenge but I am happy with the results. Teaching the class was a lot of fun. I felt like my students all came away with a good piece to be proud of. I have a separate site for just my pet portraits now, check it out at http://www.mattdrawspets.com/ 

Long Figure Drawing

New long figure drawing that I recently finished. Really happy with the way this turned out. I feel like each times I do a new long figure drawing, it's better than the last one. I am still proud of the last one I did, the guy with the huge beard. I submitted it to the ARC Salon, so I am hoping it gets in. These long drawings are fun to do, even though they take a long time to do and can be very tedious, but its a great way to focus on edges and anatomy, both literal and exaggerated. 

"Self Portrait" And A Dog Sketch

Being that my name is Matt Smith, I often get referenced to Matt Smith the actor from Doctor Who. So yes, I am an artist and I play a doctor on TV, or did, the Doctor regenerated and now someone else plays him and took my job. So I decided to draw a self portrait, its been a long time since I have done one. The dog sketch is 5x7, I wanted to add a mini pet portrait to what I am already offering on Etsy for my custom pet portraits, https://www.etsy.com/shop/MattDrawsStuff. I got this review today from one of my customers;
"I purchased this as a gift for my daughter. I gave Matt a photograph of Duke and he captured his appearance and even the loving way he looks at us in graphite. It brought tears to my daughters eyes when she received it! Matt is great to work with and he makes the whole process seamless. Thanks so much Matt!!!!"

Happy New Years!

Well its a new year and I would like to start the new year off by posting the last 2 pet drawings I did from last year! The dog is named Duke and the cat is named Luna. Duke may be my favorite pet drawing I have done so far, I wanted to keep it for myself. He kind of looks like one of the models I used to draw in class. of there is ever a pet looking like a person. Luna, I had to draw from a cell phone pic, so it wasn't the best of reference, but I made it work and I am quite happy with the drawing. A real cool looking cat too, all black with these huge ears.